Named TIGER, Hyundai’s latest concept isn’t about a fancy all-electric urban stroller meant to save the dolphins. In fact, TIGER stands for Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot and it doesn’t need a human presence to car its way through difficult terrain.

Unlike other concepts and prototypes, Hyundai’s Tiger will not preview a production model, at least not for the foreseeable future. Instead, it is meant to “give us an opportunity to push our imaginations.”

Those are the words of Dr. John Suh, boss of Hyundai’s New Horizons Studio opened last year in Mountain View, California, who also mentioned that the company is always on the lookout for new ways to rethink vehicle design and influence the future of mobility and transportation.

In this respect, the Tiger prototype was developed on a modular platform whose highlight is obviously the leg and wheel drivetrain. The legs are articulated so they can bend at any time, allowing the concept to easily adapt to highly irregular terrain while keeping a level posture.

That’s pretty important in the bigger-picture dynamics of Tiger because hidden under the metal sheet is a loading area that can be used to transport goods or deliver aid kits in the event of an emergency – natural disaster, accident, this sort of occurrences.

When it’s not using its legs to walk, the Tiger can move around just like any other car. It’s also all-wheel-driven, so still pretty capable, except that whenever it gets stuck, Tiger can just up and go pretty much in the same fashion as Hyundai’s previous Elevate prototype showed at CES back in 2019.

Well, since our big, crowded cities are strangled by traffic as we speak, we can imagine one of these climbing on top of other cars in a traffic jam to get wherever it’s needed. You know, as a bonus to its off-roading abilities.